(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the preparation of cotton and particularly to cleaning seed cotton before it is ginned.
Cotton ginners are skilled in the art of cleaning seed before it is ginned; and therefore, a cotton ginner is one ordinary skill in this art.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Modern cotton harvesting is by machine. Most of the cotton is harvested by cotton strippers which strip the entire boll of cotton, including the cotton burr, from the stalk also harvesting stems, sticks, leaves, and other trash.
The harvested material will include lint cotton, cotton seed, cotton burr, stems, leaves, sand, dirt, and other trash.
The harvested material is referred to as seed cotton. The cotton even after having the burrs, sticks, leaves, and other trash removed from it is also referred to as seed cotton. After the seed are removed, the seed are referred to as cotton seed, and the lint is referred to as cotton lint. Often, everything except the cotton lint and cotton seed are referred to as trash although the trash sometimes is identified by individual components such as burrs, stems, sticks, leaf trash, sand, and other trash.
At the time of harvesting, some trash is removed from the seed cotton. Many developments have been made for removing greater amounts of trash, including most of the burrs. The cleaning done during harvesting would be included with the harvesting equipment.
Customarily, the first step in preparation of seed cotton at the cotton gin is to clean the seed cotton by an airline cleaner. Normally, the seed cotton is conveyed from transport means into the cotton gin by entraining the seed cotton in an air stream, commonly called a suction. The first step is that the airline cleaner, i.e., to clean the seed cotton while it is still air conveyed. Often these airline cleaners include beaters which wipe the seed cotton across a woven wire screen. Thereafter, other machines remove burrs that are in the seed cotton (even if some burr removal is taking place upon the harvesting equipment, not all burrs are removed at that time). Thereafter, the seed cotton may be again cleaned before it is ginned. The ginning process is the process of separating the lint from the seed. After the cotton is ginned, often the lint is cleaned at the cotton gin. From there, the cotton lint is pressed into bales, and the bales are transported to a spinning mill. At the spinning mill, the lint cotton is often cleaned again before the carding and spinning process begins.